Gifted and Talented Report
Philosophy is certainly becoming a topic of interest for our students here at Marist Sisters’ College. In 2022, we will have an elective Philosophy class in Stage 5 and recently four students from the Year 10 Newman class participated in a 1-unit Philosophy course at the University of Notre Dame, forming part of their preliminary units.
The students have written about their experience of studying Philosophy at a university level. Please enjoy their report below.
From 29 November to 3 December we participated in the University of Notre Dame’s Philosophy course, Logos I. This course gave us an opportunity to strengthen our critical thinking abilities and provided an introduction to Philosophy in a way that prepares us for later life, study and work. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 regulations, we could not complete this course at the university, however, we were able to come together in order to better discuss and share ideas. Throughout the week, we took part in modules including Think, Critical Thinking and Informal Logic, Truth and Reality, Human Persons, Love and Friendship, Philosophy of Mind and Brain, I Think Therefore I Am, and Science and Religion. Some of the concepts we dived into included moderate realism, nihilism, naturalism, dualism and rationalism, which we applied to the view of the human experience. We were able to discuss ideas and philosophical concepts with fellow like-minded peers and our teachers, and learn argumentative skills and how to identify fallacies. This included thought-provoking questions based on the content to enable our critical thinking, such as:
“Descartes asks us to put aside all of these sources of knowledge and to start knowing with a clean slate. Is this a good idea or a bad idea?”
“Based on your own life experience, do you think scepticism is good or bad, or a bit of both? Why?”
“Can you think an individual (without at the same time thinking about ‘what’ it is)?”
We would share our own opinions and then discuss them with other members of the course for feedback and different perspectives. As a whole, we thoroughly enjoyed having this opportunity to further our thinking and challenge our original perspective on philosophical concepts such as existence and human nature.
Jaimie Woo, Clara Nguyen, Mana Sugimoto and Bianca Youngman, Year 10 Students
Mrs Rachael Colreavy, Gifted and Talented Coordinator
This article on College life meets The Archbishop’s Charter for Catholic Schools – Charter #2 & #6
